which distro to run on Pentium machine?

hi, i was windows user for a long time but i switched to mac and i love it. since OSX is based on UNIX, i figured i would install Linux on one of my older machines to get a better grasp of UNIX and its commands (mainly for the purpose of using my Mac more efficiently).

the machine is a 200Mhz Pentium I, with 32mb RAM and (2) 3gb hard drives. ive tried to install a few different Distrobustions and none have worked, I tried Linspire, Damn Small, Slackware, xandros, and gentoo. none worked and im assuming its because the machine is too old? with most of them the installation just hung up halfway through.

can someone recommend the best version to run on an old 200mhz? thanks

jared

Why doesn't it work? What are your problems as I read a lot of people can actually install it on older computers and it should install anyway.

Nothing too new.

Perhaps RedHat 7.3?

If the machine doesn't have new features, you may not even need the newest kernel.

Does it have USB?

Doe sit have WiFi?

The only caveat there, is if you decide to add stuff, you may have to recompile the kernel.

Or, if you have an unlimited amount of time and patience, perchance you should just install Linux From Scratch on it.

Kyle

it has USB (1.0 of course). no wifi, just ethernet and 36.6 (!!) modem.. im no linux expert so i dont really know why it wont install. all distros ive tried seem to just install halfway and then freeze.

Have you given Libranet a try, http://www.libranet.com/system_requirements.html, take a look at the requirements, it should be able to work on your PC.

okay, i tried that, it says "installation would not mount". i tried a few times with different partitioning and the same results. any help?

I tried Linspire, Damn Small, Slackware, xandros, and gentoo

System requirements for Linspire (bottom of page), Xandros, and Gentoo.
Check your hardware. Is RAM and hard drive okay?
My Slackware install booklet says 16 MB is the minimum RAM for install. I think you would need to choose to do a text install rather than the default. Running a default KDE or Gnome (GUI desktops) on your 32 MB is probably not going to happen.
I have not done a DSL hard drive install, but it may have failed for the same reason.
Consider Vector Linux.
Good Luck.

I have Slackware 10.0 running on an old Pentium classic (Pentium I) laptop running at 120MHz and with 40MB RAM. It was impossible to install recenct versions of SuSE, Red Hat or Debian on this laptop, but Slackware allowed me to put a full system, that is really up-to-date onto it.

According to the CD inlet of Slackware 10.0 your machine should be good enough. It needs a minimum of 32 MB of RAM, so here you are at the limit, but otherwise it should be possible to install it on your machine.

My old laptop doesn't have a CD-ROM, but PCMCIA Ethernet. So I started with the installation disks (yeah: floppy disks!) and did an NFS install. It worked flawlessly.

There are also some current distributions out there specifically designed to run on low-spec hardware. You might want to examine these:

- Amigo Linux (and other distros created by LQ member gnashley --- search for this author's posts)
- Vector Linux
- Damn Small Linux
- Arch Linux

There are others. Vector and Amigo are interesting options, as you can install Slackware software packages on them, in order to expand and adapt them to your needs.

So: At which point does a Slackware installation fail on your system? Maybe you could try posting at the Slackware or Slackware installation forum, here on LQ. People there are very helpful!

gargamel

Moved: More suitable in our distros forum.

Running a default KDE or Gnome (GUI desktops) on your 32 MB is probably not going to happen.

I've done it. It works. It's slow, but it works. Delays are small.

Yes, you can do it (run KDE or Gnome on a low-spec machine), and you can run Mozilla in the desktop... But you probably prefer something lighter... like Fluxbox, Openbox 3 (very good, I find) or WindowMaker.

gargamel